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BPI system glitch causes mispostings on client accounts

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Numerous clients of the Bank of the Philippine Islands on Wednesday, June 7, unauthorized transactions that deducted money from their accounts or worse, even led to their account balances becoming negative.

In a statement issued around 8 am on Wednesday, BPI attributed the fiasco to an "internal data processing error."

"Due to an internal data processing error, some clients may have seen their accounts debited twice or credited twice for a past transaction. We are currently correcting the mispostings," the bank said.

"We apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused."

It then issued another statement at around 9:30 am, specifying that "transactions occurring between April 27 and May 2" were "double-posted as of June 6."

"We have identified the root cause of this error, and are temporarily suspending access to electronic channels to speed up rectification. All BPI branches will open on time this morning, and will continue to service your needs," BPI also said.

It assured clients that the issue would be resolved on Wednesday, and that their bank accounts would return to normal.

"We wish to reassure our clients that this matter will be resolved expediently, and that none of them will lose money from this incident," BPI said.

On social media, clients had complained that the amounts deducted ranged from several hundreds to thousands of pesos.

BPI gising na! This is urgent. We can't wait for 8 AM when our accounts just lost money by the thousands. People need to withdraw before 8!

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Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).